At the crow's nest of the navy ship, Julian used binoculars to look ahead and saw the silhouette of a massive island in the distance.
The sky was already dark even though it was early in the morning. It meant that they were close to one of the Night Islands.
Julian said, and then used rope to slide down to the deck.
"Nightingale is ahead!"
Kiernan left the wheel and joined Julian at the front of the step. He borrowed the binoculars and looked ahead.
'Nightingale, where my mother is…'
He then gave the binoculars back to Julian and moved to one of the light blue-colored rowboats.
They had already made up their mind to not go all the way to Nightingale's harbor with the stolen navy ship. It would be very idiotic.
Julian rushed to the lower deck, then grabbed a matchstick from his pocket and scratched it against his finger.
The matchstick lit up in flames.
With a smile on his face, he looked at the barrel of gunpowder and tossed the matchstick in the middle of it.
He quickly took cover, and the barrel of gunpowder exploded, making a hole in the side of the ship, and water started pouring in.
"Goodbye, and thanks!"
Julian thanked the ship, then rushed back to the deck and joined Kiernan in the rowboat. They cut the rope that tethered them to the sinking ship and fell to the sea.
Amidst the large splash, the rowboat emerged, and Kiernan quickly used the oars to paddle away from the sinking ship.
"A smart idea to get rid of the ship ."
Julian said as he relaxed on the rowboat, looking at the sinking ship in the distance, but then asked out of curiosity.
"How will we leave Nightingale, though?"
"With a passenger vessel. It isn't the safest choice, but it is the cheapest, and I don't know about you, but I am done wasting money!"
Julian nodded and put his white-colored headphones over his head. He then put music on through the music player, and it was so loud that the music almost seeped out of his ears.
With the music accompanying them, they rowed in silence towards the island in the distance.
Kiernan kept his thoughts a mystery and just kept rowing towards the island, but the sadness of the song lingered in the air around him.
It would be a lie if he told someone that he wasn't nervous about going to Nightingale.
It started as just an excuse to leave the small city of Irio behind. If he didn't need to take a photo of his mother, he would've never even gone to this place.
Now, he was only about a hundred rows away from the harbor of the island, and the nervousness grew in his heart.
He was quite curious about this mother of his, even though she abandoned him and hadn't showed her face all these years.
On Earth, he didn't have a mother or father.
He'd already experienced the fatherly love. He didn't care or expect to feel any sort of motherly love from his mother, as she had already abandoned him once.
'It looks like I am not the only one who is curious. There is a strange feeling in my heart that doesn't seem to belong to me. It might be the last of former Kiernan's feelings.
'I guess he was also curious about this mother of his. These are the last of his feelings that linger in my body, and once these are gone, so will he.'
Kiernan took a very deep breath, closed his eyes, and let those feelings come to him like a tidal wave.
A very gothic-looking castle loomed in the middle of Nightingale, right at the center of its big city. It was enormous, with towers propping up into the sky and stone walls that seemed to stretch on forever.
It was black as night and surrounded by a moat filled with the dark water from the river that ran through the city.
The castle had over a hundred windows. All ornate with arched stained glass. The castle looked both majestic and mysterious.
It was the Abracadabra castle—the rulers of the island of Nightingale.
Nightingale's city was as big as Pirate Kingdom's. All of its buildings were darker in color, but they were also cramped together and had a unique charm.
The streets and alleyways were numerous—narrow and winding with cobblestone pavement—it was easy to get lost even for those who've lived there all their lives.
Outside the Nightingale City, the vast expanse of lush green countryside stretched as far as the eye could see. It had big forests teeming with wildlife and mountains that loomed in the distance, their peaks often shrouded in mist.
Those mountains circled the island like a protective barrier, shielding the city from the harsh winds and storms that often swept through the region.
Because of those mountains, the only entrance to the island was through Nightingale's Pass. It led straight to the harbor where there were hundreds of ships docked.
If someone didn't fancy going through the pass, they would have to climb the mountains, where more than a hundred people have already perished.
And at this moment, a fisherman carried his stuff to his small fishing boat and then noticed an amusing sight.
A rowboat was wobbling past his small boat, carrying two young men—one was occupied with his music while the other one was calmly rowing the boat.
The rowboat looked quite comical next to these large military ships and passenger vessels.
'Where did they come from?' The fisherman wondered. 'These two young men are either idiotic or suicidal to be out here in such a small rowboat.'
The rowboat stopped by the harbor, and after tying it to a wooden pole, the two young men stepped out onto the dock.
The dock looked extremely busy. Thousands of people were walking around, carrying bags and talking loudly on their phones.
The planks under their feet seemed shaky because of that. It felt like it could crash into the water at any moment.
Julian pushed his headphones down and wrapped them around his neck, looking around with a raised eyebrow.
Kiernan looked straight past the crowd and towards the gothic castle towering above the city.